Something that shows up over and over while reading about old guns is the pathways given to vent gas in the event of a case rupture.
It's good to have a plan for such an event.
I've never, personally, experienced a case rupture. Have you? I'm curious.
I'm not advocating eliminating the gas vents, I'm just wondering if this kind of problem was a great deal more common on "balloon" head ammunition and has mostly been eliminated by production changes in how cases are made.
One reason this suddenly stood out is I recently bumped into a discussion where they mention the AR has no vent path in the event of a case rupture.
Had two, both were cases that had been handloaded one too many times. One was a .460 Weatherby Magnum from a Weatherby Mk V rifle. The owner just handloaded the stupid-expensive brass until it would no longer hold powder. I was a rookie shooter at the time, and was concentrating on my form so the elephant gun wouldn't harm me, and I didn't notice the head separation until I cycled the bolt and the spent brass came out in pieces.
ReplyDeleteThe other was a .45 ACP in my stainless 1911. It ruptured out the feed ramp, and pushed the rounds in the magazine hard enough to force them into the cases.
The primer popped out of the pocket and caught me just above the eye breaking the skin. The slide was jammed back because of contact with the magazine, and when I dropped it, the slide went home and jammed SOLID due to the deformed brass.
Brass needed to be hammered out with a dowel, and the gun needed a LOT of cleaning, but other than that 100% fine.